Memory cards are known in the art and contain intelligence in the form of a memory circuit or other electronic program. Some form of card reader reads the information or memory stored on the card. Such cards are used in many applications in today's electronic society, including video cameras, digital still cameras, smartphones, PDA's, music players, ATMs, cable television decoders, toys, games, PC adapters, multi-media cards and other electronic applications. Typically, a memory card includes a contact or terminal array for connection through a card connector to a card reader system and then to external equipment. The connector readily accommodates insertion and removal of the card to provide quick access to the information and program on the card. The card connector includes terminals for yieldingly engaging the contact array of the memory card.
A typical memory card connector includes some form of dielectric housing which is covered by a metal shell. The metal shell may be stamped and formed of sheet metal material and formed substantially into a box-shape. The metal shell and the housing combine to define a card-receiving cavity. One end of the cavity is open to form a card-insertion opening. The dielectric housing may be generally L-shaped or U-shaped and includes a rear terminal-mounting section at the rear of the cavity, and a longitudinal side wall section extends forwardly from one or both ends of the rear section at one or both sides of the cavity. The contacts or terminals of the connector are mounted on the rear section. The metal shell has a top plate substantially covering the dielectric housing, with side plates extending downwardly over the side wall sections of the housing. The side plates of the metal shell and/or the side wall sections of the housing define the sides of the card-receiving cavity.
The memory card connector often is mounted on the top surface of a printed circuit board, and solder tail portions of the terminals are connected, as by a reflow soldering process, to appropriate circuit traces on the board. The connector often includes some form of eject mechanism to facilitate ejecting a memory card from the card-receiving cavity of the housing. The eject mechanism often is mounted on one of the side wall sections of the L-shaped or U-shaped housing.
FIG. 1 shows a memory card connector, generally designated 26, according to the prior art and generally as described above. The connector includes a dielectric housing, generally designated 28, which includes a rear terminal-mounting section 28a and a pair of side wall sections 28b and 28c extending forwardly from opposite ends of the rear section to define a receiving space 30 for receiving a memory card inserted thereinto in the direction of arrow A. A plurality of conductive terminals, generally designated 32, are mounted on rear section 28a of housing 28. The housing is adapted for mounting on a printed circuit board, and the terminals have tail portions 32a for electrical connection to appropriate circuit traces on the printed circuit board. An eject mechanism, generally designated 34, is mounted on side wall section 28c. The eject mechanism has an ejector arm 34a reciprocal in the direction of double-headed arrow B to facilitate ejecting the memory card from receiving space 30. A metal shield or cover (not shown) may be mounted over the top of housing 28, with the cover having a top wall spanning side wall sections 28b and 28c of the housing. Therefore, the top wall of the cover and the side wall sections of the housing, along with rear section 28a of the housing, define a substantially enclosed card-receiving cavity corresponding to receiving space 30 above the printed circuit board.
Conventional memory card connectors as described above in relation to the prior art connector of FIG. 1 has an eject mechanism which includes a manually engageable pressing member 34b at the outer end of ejector arm 34a. A user must operate the eject mechanism by manually manipulating pressing member 34b. This is a very inconvenient type of operation. In addition, the eject mechanism has a card-engaging portion 34c which is at one extreme side of the card-receiving space 30. Often, a memory card becomes twisted or jammed within the connector because ejecting forces operate only at one edge of the card. The present invention is directed to solving these problems.